


Blood in the Water

by firefright



Series: Song of the Sea [4]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Bargaining, Consent Issues, Dark Fairy Tale Elements, Fantasy, Forced Pregnancy, Intersex Merpeople, Interspecies Relationship(s), M/M, Non-Explicit Sex, Past Dick Grayson/Slade Wilson, Scarpia Ultimatum, Selkies, Sexual Coercion
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-22
Updated: 2019-09-22
Packaged: 2020-10-26 02:56:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20735108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firefright/pseuds/firefright
Summary: It's been a year since Slade forced Dick to make a bargain with him in order to save Jason's life. A year of silence, with no word from the mercenary about what it is he actually wants. Now tired of waiting for the axe to fall, and of seeing his mate in distress because of it, Jason makes the decision to set out and find Slade himself. Hoping not just to gain an answer from him, but also to take back the debt that was his in the first place and spare Dick any further pain.





	Blood in the Water

**Author's Note:**

> Hey all! I've been sitting on this a while because the brain weasels have been eating at me about it, but now the time has finally come to share. I hope you're all prepared XD
> 
> A quick forewarning, the end of this chapter deals with some dark stuff. So please, please pay attention to the tags before proceeding. The Slade in this AU is centuries old, and has been living without any kind of moral tether <s>Wintergreen or otherwise</s> to hold back his worst impulses for at least two hundred years now. There's not much he won't do when it comes to finding the means to an end.

Bubbles issue forth from between Jason’s lips in a delighted cloud when he finds what he’s been looking for, hiding underneath a rock in the bottom of the bay surrounding Dick’s cove.

It’s a lobster, big and fat, with claws almost as big as Jason’s hand. They could easily take off his fingers if the creature wanted to, but lucky for him, it’s far too slow to keep up with a merman’s nimbleness, and after snatching it up from the seabed by its tail, he’s easily able to carry it back to shore.

“Dick!” he calls eagerly, the moment his head breaks the water, “Hey, Dick, come look at this! I found your favourite.”

But his calls yield nothing in the way of a response, and Jason frowns as he looks up and down the long expanse of the beach, as well as towards Dick’s hut on the border of the forest. There’s no sign of him anywhere, which, while odd, isn’t entirely unusual.

Hm.

Ducking back under the surface, he once again starts swimming while merrily dragging his catch in tow. There are a few other spots on the island near the shoreline that Dick favours, and it’s to these that he heads now.

The first, where the babbling fresh water of a stream enters the ocean, gives him nothing, but the second yields quick results, as Jason finds Dick sitting by the wreckage of an old fishing vessel that washed up here two years ago, carrying nothing but nets and broken barrels of supplies. Jason hadn’t liked the taste of the fishermen’s biscuits, or their ‘salted beef’, but Dick had appreciated the new coils of rope when he brought them to him, as well as the compass and freshly drawn map.

Pleased at the swiftness with which his search has been drawn to an end, Jason calls his mate’s name again as he makes his way into the shallows, and with an easy curl of his arm throws the lobster onto the rocks near where Dick is sitting. It bounces there, and he can’t quite help the savage grin that spreads across his face at the sound its exoskeleton makes hitting the stone.

“Dick,” he purrs, webbed fingers finding and curling around his mate’s legs where they’re resting in the water. “Dick, look; I found you dinner. Your favourite, big and fat. We could eat it right now, if you want. Or I guess you could cook it, if you have to.”

Though cooking, Jason will never quite understand. Dick has let him try the cooked meat of fish and mollusks before, but none of them ever tasted as good as they do raw to him. Humans really are just built differently in some ways, he supposes.

“Dick,” Jason slides his hands higher along his calves at the lack of immediate response, “Hey, are you listening to me?”

“What?” Dick blinks down at him, then slowly shakes his head, “Oh, I… sorry, Jason. I wasn’t listening, what were you saying again?”

“I got dinner for you,” Jerking his head towards where the lobster is now weakly flopping, Jason fails to keep a frown from spreading over his face. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Dick replies, but the words have an air of distraction about them. Still, he follows the motion of Jason’s head towards the lobster, and on seeing it smiles. “Wow, that is a big one. He must be at least a hundred years old.”

Stretching up further, Jason rests his arms over Dick’s lap, before placing his chin upon them. “Smelt it this morning. Took me the whole day to track it down.” He yawns, cracking his jaw in the process, “What are you doing out here?”

“Nothing much.” He watches as Dick worries his lip for a moment. “Or well, no, just thinking, I guess.”

“About what?”

Dick doesn’t answer him, and immediately Jason knows.

“It’s Slade again, isn’t it?”

Dick sighs, knowing he’s been caught out. “Yes.”

“Dick, you can’t just keep worrying all the time, it’s been a year now and he still hasn’t come back. Maybe he forgot.”

Jason doesn’t mean for the words to make him laugh, but laugh Dick does.

“Forgot?” he shakes his head. “Slade doesn’t forget things, Jason. He never forgets _anything_. Especially something so important as being owed a favour by me. The fact that it’s been a year is exactly what’s worrying me so much. It means that whatever Slade intends to use it for is big, and certainly not something I’ll like.”

“Or maybe it just means he hasn’t decided what it is yet,” Jason replies, swishing his tail unhappily.

“Could be,” Dick agrees, “But that’s also worrying. I know him, Jason. He’d never waste an opportunity like this. He’s wanted to have power over me again for so long…” he shudders, “The more time passes, the less I feel like I can relax.”

Jason strokes his leg sympathetically, “I know. I just…” he feels his teeth sharpen in his mouth, “I _hate_ seeing you this way. You’re my mate, I want to be able to make you happy, and this is all my—”

“No, Jason,” Dick cuts him off, reaching to run his fingers over Jason’s cheek as he shakes his head, “It’s not your fault. You only did what was in your nature to do. You had no way of knowing the consequences, and the law Slade invoked is as ancient as the world is. I wouldn’t even be surprised if the whole thing was a setup by him in the first place, so that he could lure you into stealing his ‘prey.’ He’s done such things before.”

“But you don’t know that for certain.”

“No,” Dick admits, “I don’t.”

Jason hisses, swishing his tail again, “I wish I could just track him down and kill him.”

Dick smiles at his fervour, “Unfortunately for us both, love, the consequences of you succeeding at that would be a far worse price than anything he could ask. No,” his fingers trace the pointed tip of Jason’s ear, “I’d rather you stay whole and healthy by my side than ever take that risk.”

“Magic is such whaleshit,” he mutters, but leans into the touch all the same.

“I’d agree,” Dick says, “But without it, I’d never have had the chance to meet you, so…” He draws Jason up high enough to kiss his nose. “Now, why don’t we get this lobster home so I can cook it?”

“Do you have to?” Jason definitely doesn’t whine.

“For the sake of my insides yes. But I tell you what, I’ll cut off the head and claws for you first.”

Jason grins in anticipation of the delightful crunch of lobster meat between his teeth before nodding, “Deal.”

He waits just long enough for Dick to pick up the lobster again from where he’d thrown it before pulling him into the water, then together, they swim for home.

* * *

Though he tries not to think of it, Dick’s words about Slade continue to stay with Jason the rest of that day, and the entirety of the week after.

Perhaps it’s made worse by the way he often catches Dick staring off into the horizon, or by how often he seems preoccupied by other thoughts even when they’re talking or swimming together. The threat Slade had left them with after his visit had been so very potent during the first couple months of the year, but then, as nothing had happened, it had seemed to fade. Only now, upon the anniversary of that disastrous day, it’s back again, and seemingly worse than ever as the memory of the mercenary’s words eat at Dick day in and day out.

Jason does his best to distract him, with gifts of food and other interesting things he finds washed up on the seabed of the various beaches wrapping around the island, but none of it ever seem to work for more than an hour at most. Slade’s presence, more precisely the lack of it, continues to hang around their necks like an anchor, slowly dragging them both down.

And try as he may to fight that, it continues to hit right at the deepest part of Jason. Dick is his mate. He’s claimed him, and been claimed by him in turn. That makes it his job to protect Dick, keep him happy and safe, as well as ensure their territory remains secure against all outside threats.

So far, he’s failing at that, and he will continue to fail until such time as this matter with Slade is dealt with. All of which puts him in a bind.

How does he solve such a problem when he can’t kill Slade?

The obvious solution is to make him call in the favour he’d coerced out of Dick, yet that too will only cause his mate more stress and pain in the end. By now, Jason knows enough about Slade that he doesn’t doubt Dick’s word when he says anything the mercenary could ask him for will only lead to more pain and misery in the end. Even just the act of keeping him waiting is an act of torture in and of itself. Punishment, as Dick himself had once put it, for daring to leave Slade’s side in the first place.

There has to be something he can do, though, and the more Jason thinks about it, the more he feels like he really only has one option.

Dick insisted that what happened back then was not Jason’s fault, but in his heart he knows different. The price to pay should have been his, before Dick took it off his shoulders in order to save his skin. To fix what’s wrong, he has to take back that debt. Make Slade agree to make it his again. Only then will Dick be safe, and once the price is paid, the two of them can finally get on with living the life they’re meant to have.

Happiness, security. Maybe eventually even a pod of their own when they’re ready for it. Though that part is far less important to him right now than everything else. He’s still plenty young, even if Dick himself is centuries older. They have plenty of time yet.

He just has to take care of this obstruction in their lives first.

Jason is canny enough to know not to mention his decision to Dick once he’s made it. His mate would absolutely try to stop him from going ahead with this plan if he knew, whichever way Jason tried to argue it, and he can’t allow that. He can’t allow anything to stop him from fixing what he broke in the first place.

Of course, the greatest difficulty is knowing where to start. The ocean is vast, and Jason at this point has explored very little of it. He doesn’t even know the taste of Slade’s blood to use to track him down with, despite his best efforts on the one day they met. Finding him could take a great deal of time and effort, and the longer he takes, the more Dick may come to suspect what it is he’s up to.

But at least he is used to Jason taking long trips away from home already, mostly to explore the wider territories around their island, and so long as he doesn’t push his usual time limit too much on each occasion he goes, no red flags should immediately come up.

Just so long as he doesn’t get himself into any other major trouble along the way. Like say, running into other unfriendly mers or pirates, among all the other terrors that exist out there in the deep. Some of which Jason knows from before he was separated from his own family during the storm which brought him to Dick, and others that he knows only from the stories his dam told him.

His mind made up, Jason starts to lay the seeds of his plan over the course of the next few days. He very carefully avoids bringing up the topic of Slade himself, and with a few hints here and there (longer fishing trips out to sea, and playing more with his already existing collection of treasures) begins to indicate that his wanderlust has started to build all over again.

“Oh, go on then,” Dick sighs, smiling when he catches Jason gazing at the darker depths of the far ocean for the third day in a row that week, “Get out of here. I know that look.”

Appearing too eager would also ruin things, so Jason bites his lip as he turns his head to look back at him.

“Are you sure?” he asks, “Because I don’t have to go if you don’t want me to. I can stay.”

“I just told you,” Dick says, poking him with the toes of his foot (always so endlessly fascinating to watch in motion), “I know that look on your face. You won’t be satisfied until you get out there again, which means you’ll also end up being insufferable to me if I don’t let you go.” His eyes soften, “You don’t ever need to hold back from doing what you enjoy on my account, Jason, you know that.”

“I just want you to be okay,” he says, and means it wholeheartedly. Nothing is more important to him than Dick.

“I know you do, and I will be, I promise. I’ve survived without you before, little fish, I absolutely can do again.” Then, quirking his lips, Dick adds, “At least for a few days. I admittedly would be sad if you decided to stay away from me for much longer than that.”

“I wouldn’t,” Jason replies, reaching up to grasp his ankle before kissing it, “I _couldn’t_. You’re mine, Dick.”

“And you’re mine, Jason,” Dick replies, echoing the traditional words, “Heart, body and soul, until the day I die and the sea claims me.” With an easy push of his muscles, he slides himself down fully into the water from the sand. “Now, come here and let me say goodbye to you properly.”

Properly, in this case, means more than just passionate kisses, and eager touches of hands. It means an hour that passes in a hot, heavy blur of sensation. An hour of Dick’s magic surrounding him, binding his hands with shackles made of water to the seabed, and his mate’s body straddling his as fingers stroke and tease over the thick lips of his slit until he opens up, exposes his cock, and at last allows Dick to slide home inside him.

The way he fucks is still almost indescribable to Jason, even after getting a full year’s experience under his scales. Fast and hard or slow and gentle, the experience remains the same, completely overwhelming his senses. He likes it best this way, though. Likes being taken, and feeling all the strength his so-called fragile human partner hides within himself come out, proving that which Jason already knows.

There is no one in this world, human or mer alike, that he could ever want more than Dick.

After they’re finished, they lie comfortably back together on the sand where the shallow waves wash up against the beach, Jason’s head now resting on Dick’s chest as he does his best to calm his still racing heartbeat, as well as quiet his body back down from its ever growing need to breed.

“You’ll call me back if anything happens, won’t you?” he asks, “Let me know so I can come protect you.”

“You don’t need to protect me,” Dick replies, but kisses his forehead as he strokes Jason’s sodden hair back out of his eyes, “But yes, of course I’ll call you. You’re my mate now, anything we have to face we face together.”

Hearing him say the word still manages to put a warm shiver up Jason’s spine, and grateful as always he turns his face to first kiss, then lightly nip, at Dick’s skin. Of course, with it also comes a small spear of guilt for the sin he’s about to commit, but Jason reminds himself again that he’s doing this to protect Dick, and nothing is more important than that.

“Thank you.” he says.

“You’re welcome, Jay.”

They remain like that together for the next hour, dozing peacefully, before eventually the darkening light and cooling temperatures force them to pull apart for Dick’s sake. Jason stretches himself out amongst the surf, cracking his shoulders and flicking his tail. They exchange one final kiss before he pushes himself back out towards the deeper water again.

“Be careful,” Dick says, with one final look of soft longing in his eyes as he watches him go, “Don’t stay away too long.”

“I won’t,” Jason promises him, fighting the urge to change his mind about going already, “And I’ll bring you back something good this time, I promise.”

“You always do.” Dick smiles, and the last thing Jason sees before he dives under the water is his hand lifting to wave him off.

Pushing all other thoughts out of his mind, Jason turns and strikes out for deeper water. He has to do this, for Dick. There’s no other way.

* * *

The first day, Jason does nothing but swim, moving his body at the fastest speed he can maintain to get past everything familiar in the space of a few hours, before resting underneath the raised edge of a reef until morning.

There’s a harbour town on another island not too far from here that he knows of. Far larger, and infinitely more populated than the one Dick calls home. Jason has never actually been to visit it before, mainly out of respect for Dick’s request that he stay away from concentrated gatherings of people, but he’s viewed it from afar, and surely if he’s going to be able to find Slade’s ship, going to the places where others congregate is the best start.

He won’t be able to talk to the humans there, of course, at least not without being attacked, but he can sneak in underneath their docks and piers to listen to their conversations, and hopefully by doing so, overhear something useful.

The journey there takes him most of the next day, too. Jason catches and eats his meals along the way, chowing down on a few small fish and in once case ripping into an octopus. It leaves a string of sucker prints up his arms and shoulders in retaliation, and he grins at the idea of having something like them as a battle scar one day. That would look pretty intimidating.

Certainly better than the ridged scar Slade left him from his harpoon, anyway.

(And for a frightening second, he also remembers the stories his dam told him back when he was just a pup. Of squids the size of whales, as well as the greatest and most terrifying beast of them all, the Kraken. A horror he certainly hopes never to meet out here.)

It’s late afternoon when he enters the harbour, keeping low against the sandy seabed until he reaches the docks and weaving around the anchors of various moored ships. The water tastes different here, less pleasant, and everywhere is scattered the remnants of the humans’ rubbish, carelessly discarded into the ocean as if it’s nothing more than one giant waste pit.

Just for that, he feels the predatory urge to go up to one of the smaller boats or the nearby shoreline to see what prey he can pull in, but Jason restrains himself. Pirates may be one thing, but Dick will not forgive him attacking anyone else he might perceive as innocent, even if their polluting of the water makes Jason view them as anything but.

More importantly, such petty vengeance is not at all what he’s here for, and so swimming as silently as he can, Jason carefully raises his head up from the water to listen to what the humans have to say.

As it turns out, at least for that first day, it’s nothing much. He learns a great deal more than he ever cared to about their interpretation of the sea’s whims, her bounties, as well as the coming and goings of merchant ships from the island. He hears about their daily lives, their complaints about their wives and husbands (basically their words for mates, Dick had once explained to him) as well as their base hatred for most everyone who possesses more than they do. Songs and shanties are sung, particularly as the light fades and night comes on, but still, none of it is what Jason came to listen to.

Swimming back out to cleaner waters to sulk, he eventually sleeps, before deciding to return again the next day to the same result.

This town is a washout, he swiftly decides, and he doesn’t have the time to linger where he won’t find anything useful. Swiftly, he moves on.

He finds another island not too far away, then another. Both of which have nothing to offer as well. On his way to a third, he almost runs afoul of another moody old mer (the first of his own kind he’s seen in a decade) with scraggly brown hair and broken teeth. It’s only by the merit of the speed given to him by his youth that Jason manages to escape him, and while nursing four shallow scratch marks along his side on the rise of a nearby skerry he finds an hour later, he finds himself once again questioning the wisdom of his decision.

The truth is, he could search the ocean for years, and still possibly never find Slade. He could be anywhere. He could even now be back at one of the islands Jason has already visited and vacated.

What if he’s on the other side of the world? What if he’s on land somewhere? On one of the great continents Dick has spoken of to him before. Jason could never hope to find him in any of those places, and if that’s so then he’s almost certainly wasting his time here.

Maybe he should just cut his losses already and go back. It’s not as if he really has any idea of what he’s doing or where he’s going, and if he were to get lost…

Dick would come looking for him eventually, Jason knows, but he really doesn’t want to make him have to.

One more day, he decides. He’ll go one more day, then turn back for home. Maybe this was a stupid idea to begin with, but he needs to give it at least one more chance. Otherwise… well, maybe he’ll try again in the future, once he’s got back his nerve again.

There’s a reason why most mers who base themselves around the shorelines and the more shallow parts of the ocean tend to claim one large swathe of territory and stick to it. Most of his kind don’t take kindly to strangers, and considering how much food they need to sustain themselves, they can be incredibly protective over what resources they do have. The only times they do tend to welcome the presence of newcomers is in survival situations where they have no other choice, or those times when they set out to find a mate.

Jason’s dam had told him that, too, before he lost her.

Abruptly, a sense of melancholy rises up in him. He hasn’t thought too deeply about his family for a long time, though he’d accepted they were likely dead shortly after he got separated from them. It’s really only his dam that he misses, and he can’t help but wonder what she’d think of him now that he’s fully grown, and what she’d think of what he’s doing out here, chasing after one dangerous human for the sake of another.

Well, he thinks savagely after a moment, closing his heart to it, he doesn’t rightly care. He’ll do whatever he has to for Dick, and screw what any other mer might think of that. He’s not been a part of their world for a long time now.

Settling down, he closes his eyes, deciding to rest at least another hour before moving on.

* * *

When he wakes up again, he’s not alone.

Jason’s not sure how he knows it at first, instinct maybe, but the more he wakes, the more certain of that fact he becomes. He’s not alone; someone else is here on the skerry with him.

“Finally,” a voice says as he’s starting to sharpen his claws and teeth, just in case that someone is a threat. It sounds young, clear, and he thinks male, “I was wondering when you were going to wake up.”

Hissing at the words, Jason raises his head to look at the source while bringing his tail up out of the water and coiling it under him, so that if necessary he can propel himself immediately forward if he has to.

“Who the fuck are you?” is his first response, and an apt one, considering how this person managed to get so close to without rousing him any earlier.

On the other end of the skerry is sat a young man, human, or at least Jason thinks so, with pale blue-grey eyes, straight black hair and sharply delicate facial features that match perfectly the strong lean lines of his body. He’s also almost completely naked except for what looks like some kind of animal hide stretched across his lap, and the casual way he’s sitting even in the presence of a mer only serves to highlight that fact.

What makes him so confident, Jason doesn’t know. He’s more concerned with how this human came to be here in the first place, considering they’re far from any other land and there’s not even a rowboat nearby.

“Oh please,” the boy retorts, “Don’t be one of those boring mers who attacks at first sight rather than have a conversation. I’m not here to hurt you, and I promise you, you definitely don’t want to try and hurt me.”

“Why?” Jason responds, sliding his eyes over him. “You look like easy meat to me.”

“Appearances can be deceptive, that’s why,” the boy answers, “And I’m far from what I might first appear to be. My name’s Tim, by the way, to answer your first question. What’s your name?”

“Jason, if you must know.” Jason turns his head to take another quick glance around them. “How did you get out here, Tim?”

“That’s for me to know, and you to find out later, if I’m feeling generous once we’re done talking.” Looking fascinated, Tim leans forward toward him, resting his chin against the palm of one hand. “It’s not every day you find a mer just sleeping out in the open like you were. You were lucky no ships passed by while you were out, or you might have woken to find yourself on the way to an aquarium.”

“Just because I didn’t hear you doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have heard a ship coming.” He squints at him, while wondering what the fuck an aquarium is. “What do you want from me?”

“Just a little conversation, nothing more.” Tim says, “Are you lost or travelling?”

“Travelling.” Jason replies, because he is definitely not lost. Not at all.

“Where?”

“I don’t see why that’s any of your business.”

“It’s probably not, but I only asked out of curiosity, you don’t have to be so aggressive all the time.”

“And here I thought you implied you’d met mers before.”

“Oh, I have,” Tim yawns, covering his mouth with one long-fingered hand. “Met and ran from usually, like you had to from that miserable old bastard earlier.”

Jason starts at the reference. “You… how did you… have you been _following_ me?”

“No. Well, not until an hour ago anyway. I just happened to be passing by when I caught the end of the fight. Thought I might follow after you and make sure you came out all right.”

“How nice,” Jason says, dryly, “But I’m fine, and it really wasn’t a fight. If it was, things would have turned out differently for him, believe you me.”

“A mer choosing not to fight? See, I knew you were unusual.” Tim smiles, “So why’d you run, then?”

“I have other things to be doing, and no time to waste in a challenge over a territory I don’t even want.” Jason taps his claws against the rock beneath him. “That’s why.”

“Interesting.”

“If you say so.”

“So where are you headed?” Tim presses again. “Don’t you have a pod or a territory of your own?”

“I do, but I…” Jason scratches his claws over the rock, leaving white marks in his wake. This kid is persistent, he’ll give him that, and while he doesn’t know if Tim’s promise that he wouldn’t be able to hurt him really does hold true, Jason’s not much interested into getting into another fight for all the reasons he just listed.

On the other hand, maybe if he just tells him, he might also leave him alone.

“I’m looking for something,” he admits. “I need it to protect my home, that’s why I’m out here.”

“Is that so?” Tim says, “Well, why don’t you tell me what it is, then. Maybe I can help.”

“Or maybe you could lead me astray and attack me once my back is turned.” Jason answers sarcastically, “Forgive me for not trusting you, but we just met, and I have no idea why in the seven seas you might want to help me.”

Tim raises an eyebrow. “Because sometimes it’s nice to do a good thing for someone? I came here and watched over you while you slept, didn’t I?”

“I didn’t ask you to do that.”

“No, you didn’t, but I still did it. Like I said, sometimes it’s just nice to help someone.”

Jason’s suspicion doesn’t abate, though, and after a moment Tim goes ahead and rolls his eyes.

“All right, fine,” he admits, “I’m curious, and I like to learn new things. Especially about the creatures that inhabit this part of the ocean. The more I know, the more safe I can be, and as I’m sure you can guess, a rogue merman travelling through my home is definitely something I count as unsafe. If I can help point you towards what you’re looking for, that means I can potentially have you out of here sooner. Then things can go back to normal and I’m sure we’ll all be much happier for it. Does that sound better to you?”

It does, and Jason relaxes a little at hearing the truth. As much as he is young, and possibly naive, he’s not stupid. He knows that most creatures, humans or mers alike, rarely help each other purely out of the goodness of their own hearts. The only exception that he’s ever known to that is Dick.

“Fine,” he mutters, “I guess I’ll tell you, if you really can help. And,” he narrows his eyes, “If you tell me the truth of how you got out here and what you are.”

Tim inclines his head towards him while he thinks it over, before finally nodding. “I can’t guarantee I can help until you tell me just what it is you’re looking for, but I do promise to tell you what I am in exchange for your own truth.”

Jason supposes he’ll just have to accept that if it comes to it. Otherwise, he can’t refuse the chance to find out Slade’s location more directly.

“I’m looking for a man,” he says, “A human called Slade Wilson. He sails a ship called the _Ravager_.”

Immediately, Tim’s eyes widen with recognition, and perhaps a little fear.

“Slade Wilson,” he says, “Why would you be looking for a man like him?”

“He trapped my mate into making a bargain with him, at the cost of a favour to be repaid at any time he chooses. But the fault that caused the bargain to happen was mine,” Jason swallows thickly, “I want to convince him to let me take on the debt instead.”

“Gods… you are a brave one, aren’t you?” Tim shakes his head, “I feel like I should warn you, I’ve never met Wilson myself, but everything I’ve ever heard about him tells me what you’re trying to do is a terrible idea.”

“I know it is,” Jason counters, “But I still have to do it, for my mate.”

Tim bites his lip, “I don’t doubt it. They’re lucky, whoever they are, to have you. Or maybe unlucky, depending on what Wilson may ask _you_ to do in their stead. Either way, a promise is a promise. I do know where his ship was seen heading last.”

“Really?” Jason struggles not to sound too eager, knowing that Tim’s warning to him is a valid one, despite how much of a stroke of luck this seems. “Where?”

“The humans call it Horseshoe Island, on account of its shape. Like the foot of one of those four-legged beasts they ride on land,” Tim answers. “It’s about twenty miles north of here. Not too far, if you set a good pace.”

“How long ago did you hear this?”

“About two days, so the information should still be good by the time you get there.” Tim leans back slightly, squinting at him, “I do hope you know what you’re doing with this, Jason. You’re one of the nicest mers I’ve ever met, it’d be a shame if something happened to you.”

If he’s the nicest mer Tim’s ever met, then by the sea gods does that say something about what bastards his race generally are, Jason thinks. “Trust me,” he says, “I’m not going there with any intention to die.”

“Most people don’t,” the boy shrugs, “And yet they still often do.”

“Nevertheless, thank you.”

“Thank you? Now I really don’t want you to die.” Tim smiles.

Jason uncurls his tail, looking north. Twenty miles. He can make that in a day, maybe less, depending on how hard he pushes himself. Then he can confront Slade, get him to return the debt to him and…

And, hopefully, then he can return home, knowing Dick no longer has anything to fear from his old lover. Yet one of the things Tim just said troubles him: that something Slade might ask him to do could still end up hurting Dick in some way. But surely it can’t be any worse than what Slade could ask Dick to do himself?

No, it can’t. Whatever Slade might want from him, Jason will bear the burden. After that, they’ll both be free.

He makes himself ready to leave, but before he does, there’s one last answer Tim owes him.

“So,” Jason asks, “What are you exactly?”

“Me?” Tim grins, before patting the hide draped across his lap, “Why, Jason, I’m a selkie, isn’t it obvious?”

“A sel-whatnow?” It’s not a term Jason’s ever heard of before, and he knows his confusion probably shows on his face, judging by the way Tim chuckles at him next.

“A selkie. I’m a little surprised you’ve never heard of my kind before, but then again, we’re generally not from around here.”

“And what…” Jason wrinkles his brow, “What does being a selkie mean? What can you do?”

“Most everything you can do, as well as walk on land.” Tim stretches out his legs. “I’ll show you in a moment, but since I won’t be able to talk after, let me say one last thing to you first. Whatever Slade asks of you, Jason, however simple it may sound at first, don’t think for a moment there won’t be more to it. Don’t agree to anything without taking the time to think it through first. If you do, I guarantee you’ll regret it.”

Jason frowns, “I’ll… try to remember that.”

“I hope you do.” Tim stands up, still holding the hide in his hands, “Good luck to you, then, and maybe we’ll meet again someday.”

As Jason watches, he swings the hide in the air and around his shoulders. Then there’s a burst of something, _magic_ Jason can feel radiating against his skin, and where before sat the form of a young man, there is now a creature he only distantly recognises. A seal, long and grey and sleek, with a darker shade of dappling down its back.

Jason watches, gobsmacked, as it raises its head to look at him, then winks one great dark eye before diving into the water with barely a ripple left in its wake.

What the... How the…

Jason reaches up to rub his face. Right, selkie. He is definitely asking Dick for more information on those when he gets back. For now, though, he has other matters to attend to.

Looking at the horizon, Jason takes a deep breath, then dives off the skerry and back into the sea. It’s time to find Slade.

* * *

He makes it to Horseshoe Island the next morning, and wary of everything Tim said, takes his time in circling the shoreline before making any kind of direct approach.

It’s pathetically easy for him to spot the _Ravager,_ even from a distance. The ship is huge and hulking where she’s anchored at one corner of the island, and sat low in the water from the weight of all her guns. Jason swallows a little as he observes her, the small outlines of the men walking about her deck and scurrying up her rigging. Too many for him to hope to kill without some kind of interference from either a divine source or freak accident, but at least the island itself seems to be unpopulated.

There are no towns. No villages. Not even a fort or lighthouse like the ones humans seem to like to build everywhere else. It makes Jason wonder exactly why Slade would have chosen to come here, considering how utterly devoid of anything interesting it seems to be.

Supplies, maybe? That’s certainly one option, or perhaps someone he’s hunting has been hiding out here. Jason doesn’t know, and to be honest, he doesn’t rightly care, he just needs to be able to talk to Slade himself, somehow. Preferably when he’s not surrounded by the rest of the men on his crew.

But first, he decides it would be smartest to rest and eat. Jason doesn’t want to take the risk of coming face to face with Slade while weak and tired. Not after last time, when the man had almost killed him without breaking a sweat.

He finds an eel, and by tearing chunks of coral off the reef, digs it out of its cave to eat before curling up to rest himself on a sandy patch of sea floor, shielded from the surface by a shelf of rock. The sun has risen to the position of noon in the sky before he wakes again, and Jason cracks a yawn, stretching out the entirety of his body before setting off for the ship.

He still can’t see any sign of Slade on her deck. It could be that he’s in the main cabin in the rear, but that’s something Jason can’t check without actually leaping out of the water and sinking his claws into the wood to get a look. An action that the other members of the crew currently stationed on the ship would almost certainly hear and come to investigate if he did.

Just because he wants Slade’s attention, doesn’t mean he also wants the attention of every other human around here as well. Jason would rather he get to meet the man alone, somewhere where (if necessary) he can get away quickly without being cornered by a whole host of other men. His goal here is to remove Dick’s source of stress after all, not make it worse.

Clicking unhappily, he leaves the ship for the island, once again swimming its perimeter in the hopes of tracking Slade down. But it’s only on his second lap that he finally catches sight of him, emerging from the forest onto a small sprig of land that juts out into the ocean, and thankfully far away from anyone else.

Now all Jason has to do is approach him, which is not as easy a task as it sounds.

Even viewed from a distance, then from under the water, Slade cuts an imposing figure. He is huge for a human, with a muscled build that shows even through the long and bulky coat he wears, and it’s with a heavy shudder from head to tail that Jason suddenly remembers how easily the man had hauled him out of the water before. Like he weighed _nothing_. Like he was a tiny herring and not a fully grown merman, easily clearing nine feet in length.

There’s a fault built within his species, Jason knows, and it’s that they respect power over anything else. Mers (at least the mermen) are violent creatures by nature. They live by the law of claw and tooth. Disputes are settled with blood and blood alone, and even the seeking of a mate first involves the understanding that each is strong enough to be worthy of the other. So while consciously he might hate Slade and be willing to kill him if the opportunity ever comes up, his body, and his instincts, shriek the need for caution and tentative submission, lest he end up getting hurt all over again.

Jason shakes his head to try and clear it of those thoughts. At least Slade isn’t carrying a harpoon this time that he can see, which means that so long as he keeps his distance he should be safe.

Well, safer at least.

“You might as well come out, you know. I haven’t got all day to wait here.”

Under the water, the words sound distorted, but the deep richness of Slade’s voice still rings clear. Jason doesn’t know how or when the man had managed to spot him in his approach, but he feels his heart immediately skip a beat, as a shiver ripples down his scales and sets his teeth on edge. The urge to attack or flee swells harder than ever, and it’s only with a firm hand and the memory of what happened last time that he beats it back down again.

Flushing his gills clean, Jason readies his lungs to take in air, and finally raises his head to break the surface of the water.

Immediately, he has Slade’s attention on him, and the man smirks as he swaggers forward, right up to the very edge of the water in what can only be a blatant taunt. “Well now,” he says, “Isn’t this a lovely surprise; Grayson’s precious pet so far from home. Giving you a longer leash these days, is he?”

Jason hisses before he can stop himself, “I am _not _his pet.”

“No?” The eyebrow above Slade’s remaining eye lifts, while his smile widens. “I suppose not. A real pet would be better trained than you, and wouldn’t have needed to be put down the way you did. How’s that shoulder by the way? Not too sore, I hope.”

“Fine,” Jason spits out, despite the way the scar left there twinges at the reminder. “It’s fine.”

“So I see.” Going one step further, Slade actually crouches down with the toes of his boots in the surf. A position that sets Jason’s teeth on edge, and every predatory instinct in him ringing. “Now, how is it that I can help you today? I doubt you’ve swam all the way out here just for the good of your health, after all.”

“No,” Jason glares, “I didn’t.” He flicks his tail to keep himself steady amongst the waves before continuing, “I came to talk to you about Dick.”

“Ah,” the man says, still smiling, “One of my favourite subjects. And what exactly is the nature of your inquiry about him?”

Jason’s fins twitch. He takes a deep breath as he says, “The debt he owes you, the one he took on my behalf, I want you to give it back to me.”

“Hmm,” Slades leans back on his heels a little as he contemplates the words. “That took longer than I expected.”

_What?_

Jason narrows his eyes, “You expected me to come?”

“Oh yes,” Slade smiles again, “You seemed like a loyal dog. Obviously you wouldn’t want your master suffering on your behalf if you could help it. The only thing I didn’t take into account is just how obedient you apparently are, if it took you this long to build the courage to find me.”

Jason’s stiffens at the choice of words. “I am not afraid of you!”

“Of course not,” comes the reply, laden with mock-sincerity, “That’s why I can see your fins shaking from here.”

Before he can stop himself, Jason is snarling and lunging forwards, but before he can get more than a couple feet closer Slade has pulled free the sword from his belt and pointed the tip in the direction of his throat.

“Careful, lad,” he says, voice darker and colder this time, “I spared you before only out of respect for Dick, but you’re a long way from home now. There’ll be no such consideration for your life this time.”

Jason swallows at the sight of the gleaming, naked steel. Damn humans and their weapons.

“You didn’t spare me out of respect for him,” he says, reluctantly relenting. If not out of fear for his own life, then at least for the memory of the consequences Dick had warned him would happen should he manage to succeed at killing Slade so long as the debt is still in place. “You spared me because you want to control him again, that’s all.”

“Is that what he told you?” Slade replies, before shaking his head, “That boy, still so bitter over nothing. I offered him the world and he threw it away all for the sake of some barren island in the middle of nowhere and an overgrown beast.”

Jason’s scales ripple with the urge to attack again. It’s only by sheer force of will that he manages to hold himself back. “It’s not over nothing, and I am not a beast.”

“We’ll see about that.” Slade sheathes the sword again, before leaning back, “So, you want to make a deal?”

He flicks his tail again. “Yes.”

“Hm,” Reaching up, Slade scratches his chin, “And what do you have to offer me that would be worth more than anything I could ask for from Dick?”

That… that Jason doesn’t rightly know, and is maybe something he should given far more consideration before he swam here. Even putting aside Slade and Dick’s personal connection, his mate is a sea witch, able to bend the winds and waters to his will. Jason on the other hand is just a merman. Strong and fast to be sure, but no more so than other member of his species. He can’t do magic, can’t change the tide to do his bidding. Realistically, he has no idea why Slade would ever agree to do this, but that doesn’t mean he can’t try.

“That depends on what you want.” Jason replies carefully, avoiding a direct answer. “Name your price, and I’ll do it. Whatever it is.”

Slade studies him for a moment. Long enough that Jason’s skin and scales start to crawl from the pressure of his gaze. It makes him feel like prey again, and the urge to flee begins to build up in his chest once more.

“Leave Dick.”

All at once, Jason feels like the water has dried up around him. “What?!” he croaks.

“Leave Dick,” Slade says, flicking two gloved fingers idly in his direction, “Don’t go back to the island. If he tries to call you, or find you, don’t speak to him. Run as far as you have to, but never see him again.”

That… that…

“No!” Jason snaps, recoiling back from him. “No, I won’t do that. I _can’t._”

Slade clucks his tongue at him, looking amused all over again. “You said to name my price. Whatever I wanted and you’d do it. See, lad, this is why you should never deal in absolutes. They so often end up coming back to bite you in the ass.”

Jason shakes his head, “Anything but that. I won’t hurt him. Not in any way.”

“Oh, I think it’s already far too late for that. But very well, I’ll cut you a break this time. You’re young and new to the game, after all. One can’t expect too much from a dumb animal.”

“I am not a—” He clenches his teeth so hard his jaw aches. “Are you just going to keep insulting me, or actually tell me what you want?”

Slade chuckles. “The former is tempting, but well…” he appears to consider the matter for a moment, “I suppose there is one other thing you can give me that he can’t.”

“Which is?”

“A mer egg.”

Jason’s tail moves so violently that it actually sends a surge of water boiling up behind him.

“What did you just say?” he asks, unwilling to believe he heard the words correctly.

“Do you have water in your ears, boy?” Slade says, joviality seeping away in an instant. “That’s my price, if you truly wish to pay your debt back yourself.”

“I… I don’t understand, what could you possibly want with a mer egg?”

“I’m not planning to cook and eat it, if that’s what you’re afraid of.”

The man is clearly enjoying his discomfort, but even knowing that fact doesn’t stop Jason from recoiling. “Don’t joke about that.”

Slade snorts, “For a predatory species that will happily rip into every other creature around, you’re remarkably squeamish. I suppose that’s Dick’s influence at work, but very well, no jokes. I don’t want the egg to harm its occupant, I promise you that.”

“Then why do you?”

“That’s not for you to know.” Slade stands up straight, folding his arms across his chest. “My terms are set, boy. If you want the debt back, that’s what you need to do to pay it off. Otherwise, I’ll wait to take my pound of flesh from Dick when the time comes.”

Jason clenches his teeth. “How do you even expect me to get an egg? Other mers would kill me just for entering their territory, let alone attempting to raid their nests.”

There is nothing merfolk guard more fiercely than their young, even if by and large they have a habit of turning into absentee parents later on when their offspring reach adulthood and become self-sufficient. Eggs and young children are considered sacred, and nests watched constantly by at least one parent, Actually attempting to attack one…

It would be tantamount to suicide. Nothing more, nothing less.

The smile is back on Slade’s face, fuelled by cold amusement. “There are other ways for you to get an egg than stealing one.”

“Like what?”

“You can make one.”

Jason’s spine goes rigid, and he has the sudden urge to dive back beneath the water and swim as far away from Slade as he possibly can while never looking back. He resists it, though, for the moment staying floating in place.

“You can’t be serious!” he hisses, “Dick would never agree to—”

“Of course he wouldn’t,” Slade says, inclining his head towards him, “But who said anything about Dick needing to be involved?”

Now his spine unlocks. With a sweep of his arms and tail, Jason increases the distance between himself and Slade by an extra five feet. It means he has to raise his voice a little higher to be heard, but by the mother waters, that is a small sacrifice to make.

“You expect me to breed with _you_?” he spits, audibly disgusted. “I hate you!”

“I’ve never known that to be a problem for your kind before,” Slade answers, unaffected, “Right of conquest is something you all hold so very dear, after all. You could almost say it’s in your blood.” He cocks his head, “Even a little human-raised orphan like you can understand that, can’t you? Believe me, boy, I don’t like you either, but it is the only option that guarantees you success, and for me to get what I want.”

“Dick is my mate.”

“And isn’t that why you’re here? To protect him?” Slade arches an eyebrow, continuing to stare him down, “You made a mistake, boy. You stole my kill and then tried to kill me. A debt is owed and the price is set. A life for a life. Either you pay it or your mate does. This is my condition for you. Knowing that, do you really want to find out what it will be for him?”

Jason wilts under that gaze. “... no.”

“No,” Slade repeats, “So I suggest you think long and hard over what you’re prepared to do here. A real mer would do anything to protect their mate, after all. So unless you’re nothing more than a coward…”

“I’m not!”

“Then make your choice,” the man demands, “As I said at the beginning of this conversation, I haven’t got all day to wait on you.”

Jason glares at him. Outwardly, his teeth are bared, and his eyes narrowed in deadly warning, but on the inside he’s shaking at what he’s being asked to do. Breed with a man he detests. To have his first child be the spawn of that man and not his mate. Then to give away that child, and presumably have no part in raising them or their life after.

Yes, right of conquest exists. Yes, it is often the cause of one mer submitting to another and having a clutch outside of being part of a mated pair, but that doesn’t make the prospect any easier. He doesn’t _want_ to do it. And Dick…

Dick will be angry, he knows. More angry than if Slade had just asked Jason to kill something for him, probably. But at the same time, he’ll be safe, won’t he? Free of any obligation to Slade, for now and hopefully always.

The man was right about one thing, after all. If this is what Slade chooses to ask of him as repayment, Jason _dreads_ to imagine what he might ask of Dick in his stead.

“Well, boy?”

He jerks back out of his reverie, looking up at Slade. “I can’t… I can’t stay away from him the whole time it will take. I can’t…”

“I wouldn’t ask you to,” Slade says, with the easy smile of someone who knows they’ve won, “You can return to Dick once we’ve done what’s necessary. I’ll come to collect the results myself later. Now,” he crooks his fingers at him, “Come here.”

Reluctantly, Jason swims forward, and the moment he’s in range Slade is reaching downwards, snatching him by the back of the neck to haul him up onto the shore. The strength in his arm is just as great as Jason remembers, and against his will he finds himself shivering in the face of it, even as his skin crawls under the touch.

“Such loyalty,” Slade murmurs, eye tracking down his form as he forces Jason onto his back against the sand, despite the pressure the position puts on his dorsal fin. “However does he do it. First those two girls, now you. Always so willing to suffer for him.”

Jason’s attention, which had been focused entirely on the actions of Slade’s hands as they reach for his belt, now snaps back to his words. “Two girls?” he asks.

“Oh yes,” Slade purrs, “Let me see… first there was the mermaid down in the southern oceans; a queenly creature even bigger than you. Then the other one… a governor’s daughter, I believe. That poor thing, she lost the use of her legs before he parted from her.”

“Because of you?” Jason spits, trying not to get caught up in the implication that Dick has had other loves than Slade before him. One of them another mer, no less. Of course he would have. He’s centuries old.

“No.” Slade answers him surprisingly, “That one wasn’t because of me. Though I did have a personal disagreement with the mermaid…” he sees the look on Jason’s face that follows, and grins, “Don’t worry, she lived. She might even still be swimming around, in fact. Her and Dick’s relationship didn’t last that long either.”

“You’re trying to mess with me,” Jason says, voice trembling slightly as he feels one of Slade’s hands run over his stomach and down his tail, “I won’t fall for it. I know the way he feels for me, you can’t change that.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Slade says idly, but with a wicked glint in his eye, “Now, be a good fish and open up for me. I’m sure you won’t want me having to repeat this process with you anymore than necessary, after all.”

Given that his body has been wanting to do so for months now with Dick, Jason doesn’t think persuading his womb to catch will be that hard. But still...

He swallows, closing his eyes despite how much his instincts scream at him not to make himself anymore vulnerable in the face of the predator above him. Just because he has to do this doesn’t mean he needs to stare at Slade’s face the entire time. So long as he isn’t looking he can imagine it’s something else, anyone else. Just so long as—

He gasps as two long fingers spear cruelly into him, twisting and feeling with impersonal lust. Jason feels his teeth sharpen, and has to remind himself not to bite or attack. It would ruin everything if he did. There would be no deal then, no mercy, and eventually, Dick would suffer in his stead.

_You’re doing this for Dick_, he reminds himself as the fingers probe deeper, _Just remember that. You’re doing this for him_. But even that can’t hold him entirely still as a reluctant groan escapes his lips, and his tail thrashes against the sand.

“One day,” he tells Slade, rasping out the words as the man settles his too-warm weight over him, “I will kill you.”

Slade laughs, and without further ado catches both of Jason’s wrists to pin them over his head. Unknowingly — or perhaps knowingly — hitting those parts of his instincts that respond to the allure of strength and making him arch up.

“Better men and beasts have tried than you, boy,” he says, “Now…” Jason can hear the smirk in his voice as their flesh rubs together, “Why don’t we both try to enjoy ourselves while we get through this?”

Jason refuses to say anything else in response, and what follows next hurts both more and less than he wants it to.

**Author's Note:**

> [My tumblr](firefrightfic.tumblr.com)


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